Today I want to tell you about a couple of tests I’ve run over the last few years. You see, every time someone asks me one of those little questions we get all the time, I do a little experiment. I change just one word and track the difference in response.

EXPERIMENT 1: The “What do you do?” test

Question: “What do you do?”

Ramit Answer 1: “I’m a writer.”

Response: Interest level: 2/5. They’ll say, “Oh that’s cool…I have a friend who’s a writer…he’s trying to publish his book on using cucumbers to generate sustainable energy for –” NO YOUR FRIEND IS NOT A WRITER, HE’S A LOSER

Ramit Answer 2: “I’m an author.”

Response: Interest level: 4/5. “Really? So what did you write?”

BONUS: “What do you write about?” = another opportunity for hilarious testing.

EXPERIMENT 2: The “Where do you work?” test

Question: “Oh, so do you have an office?”

Ramit Answer 1: “No, I work from home” results in a 90%-95% “Scorn Score,” (e.g., “Oh…” or “Ah…how is that?” followed by a semi-frown).

Ramit Answer 2: “No, I work from a home office.” In this condition, the Scorn Score drops to approximately 50%. Common answer: “Wow, I wish I could do that.”

Each time, one word changes everything.

The same thing is true of your business. A few tiny tweaks to the language you use can change everything. You can:

Get 1,000+ extra customers by writing a better headline on a guest post

Double the size of your email list by changing just two words on your sign up box